78. We are committed to increasing the range and availability of restorative justice approaches to support reparation. Restorative justice is the name given to processes which provide victims with the opportunity to play a personal role in determining how an offender makes amends. This can often include direct reparation. A substantial minority of victims would consider meeting their offender by way of a restorative justice process and those victims who do report high levels of satisfaction. The evidence suggests that the approach may also have a positive impact on the offender’s likelihood of reoffending in the future. Getting an offender to confront the consequences of their crimes directly is often an effective punishment for less serious offences.

Do Better Do Less: The report of the Commission on English Prisons Today

From the Executive Summary: England and Wales has become a jurisdiction which punishes excessively,
harshly and with little attention paid to the relationship between
legislation and impact on prison numbers. Prison has become the
defining tool of the punishment process and we now imprison more of our
population than almost any other country in western Europe.